shorts

New shorts for the boy, made from some pretty cheerful fabric I picked up from Spotlight last summer. It can be so hard to come by decent fabrics for little boys, so when I saw this one I had to add it to the stash. It feels so good to have finally turned it into something wearable, and at the same time made a little more room in the sewing cupboard! I have used this pattern a few times now, and really like it (Ottobre 3/2008). They did turn out a tad longer than I had planned, but at the rate this babe is growing its no issue at all. And our machine/engine loving boy highly approved of the fabric choice, which was a first! Lots of 'brrr brrr, rooom rooom' noises, excited squeals and frantic pointing with pudgy little hands. He is so lovable!

kids clothes :: day 1

Here's my first completed item of kids clothing, sewn last night and embroidered on this morning. This is part of Elsie Marley's Kids Clothes Week Challenge. Wow, try saying that really fast with your mouth stuffed full of biscuits. Could be messy.

Anyway, back to the shirt. This one is a baby gift and the pattern is from Ottobre 3/2010. Its the Savanni Voile tunic. Such a sweet pattern, and I am so glad it comes in Maeve's size. You will probably see more of these soon.

tie tee

Check out this little shirt!

I found the tutorial on Saltwater kids via 'Celebrate the boy' on Made, and knew I had to make one for my boy. 
You could make so many fun variations with this simple pattern.
I am thinking a few long sleeved ones for winter would be really cute too.

The t-shirt pattern is one from Ottobre 3/08.

christmas 09

Sorry again for the huge blogging pause, things around here have been so hectic!
I hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas yesterday, celebrating the birth of Jesus with family and friends. We certainly did, despite both the girls being unwell. Poor Grace was running a fever all day. She spent most the time lying on the couch, but still managed to enjoy the day.
Hasn't my baby boy grown! He is such a sweet little man.

I had wanted to sew the kids an outfit each for Christmas, but didn't quiet get there.
Here's the skirt I made for Grace, I ended up buying a top to go with it. Pattern is from Ottobre 1/09 with a few changes. Fabric is by Kaffe Fassett. I am so in love with his fabrics right now! Fresh, summery and gorgeous.

Here is the skirt for Maeve. Fabric is also Kaffe Fasset. The lace was some I found at the Op shop, and was a perfect match.

I also made her a top to go with it on Christmas eve (not really something to write home about, but she loved it all the same). There is a giraffe appliqued on the front.

And some new gear for Jude.
The baby essentials, plenty of cute bibs and a sleeveless bodysuit. These ones were so fun to make!

I stenciled the designs on using freezer paper. The wolf and crocodile were from this book, and the fish were my idea.

The clouds on the bodysuit were also from the same book.
This was also my first attempt at fold over elastic on a garment. It was quiet easy to do, and turned out fairly neat.

Another suit the same I made a few weeks ago and he has lived in.

envelope necks are great!


And this is a little pen and notebook wrap I made for my sister in law Kate.
I made up my own pattern for this one, to suit the notebook and pens I had.
Fabric is a beautiful natural linen, with a small piece of vintage floral fabric.

Phew! I really should update my blog more...sorry for the long post.
I have lots more to show you, but we are heading off for holidays in the morning (yay!!).
Then we will be home and getting things ready for Grace's first year at school. Lots of changes coming up.

Happy holidays and New Year to all of you!
xx

bird pinny

A friend recently had a gorgeous baby girl Neve,
and this was the outfit I made for her to grow into.
She has her own sewing business here, making beautiful clothes for little people.
The pinny is from Ottobre 1/08. I have made this one a couple of times before here and here, and its such a great pattern. It amazing how different you can make the same pattern, just by changing the fabric, adding pockets or applique etc. The leggings were from Ottobre 3/09.

And don't you just love the bird fabric! That fabric shop I was telling you about a few posts ago, has relocated even closer to my house. Yep, dangerous huh! I am rather excited. Needless to say, the bird fabric (and the cute polka dot binding) was purchased there last week. Give them another month or so and they will be sooo sick of me...haha!

dino pants

Its about time I got my act together and did some sewing for the boy.
Pockets on these pants were cut out of a 000 shirt that no longer fits this growing babe.
I thought the fabric was just the cutest, and am hoping to have enough left to put on a bigger tee for him.
And what is it with grey marle? Goes with everything, especially baby blue. Love it.
Pants pattern is from Ottobre 1/2009.

denim pinny

So we couldn't just send one girl off to church with a new dress...could we? Especially when this beautiful piece of denim cries out every time I enter the sewing (junk) room 'sew me! sew me!'. So I stayed up a little too late last night and made this one for Maeve. Her response this morning when she saw it hanging on the door was 'Ooohh, that's so tuuute (cute)!' Totally worth it, this girl melts my heart.
Pattern is another Ottobre 1/08. I figure if you spend all the money on the subscription, you may as well get your moneys worth by sewing as many patterns as you can trace. This is the 'Deer dress' which I have made before here. I just lengthened it by a fair chunk, and added pockets...because what two year old doesn't love pockets. I find Ottobre's patterns run really wide, so I often end up altering them for my girls. This is still the same size as the one I made back in September, just a lot longer.

sunday best

Grace has been eating so much lately and growing like a weed. Needless to say, nothing from last Winter fits and she has been in desperate need of new clothes. This dress is one she picked out from Ottobre 4/07 a year ago, which I kept putting off making it as it wasn't really my style and looked rather fiddly to sew.
A couple of months back I finally found the perfect corduroy to sew it with, bit the bullet and pieced it together. For some reason it just looked really blah, so it was left hanging unworn until last week. I decided it needed a little red velvet ribbon, some cream lace and a brooch to bring it to life...much happier this time round, and she thinks it is beautiful. Now she actually has something decent to wear come Sunday, and the morning rush for church is on.
Happy mother, happy daughter, expanded wardrobe.

yellow ones

And here is more of the same. So nice to finally have these finished!
This yellow strawberry fabric is some I have had in the stash for a while, saving it up for something special.
And you have to have nice jammies...right? Because you spend half the day in them.
I think you call the fabric french terry (is that correct?). 100% cotton and oh so soft and lovely.
These ones should be really warm and toasty.

And Grace's parting comment as I finished taking their photo..."please don't make me wear my hair like this to preschool Mum, it looks all buffy"...maybe she meant boofy, puffy or fluffy or a combination of the three!

new jammies

With the weather getting cooler and all, I have finally made the time to get back into my sewing.
The girls (especially the biggest), were in desperate need of new winter jammies.
I have so much cotton stretch fabric in my stash at the moment, so I decided to use that up first before even looking at what the shops had to offer.
Maybe a little old-school in style (Luke just laughed when he saw them!), but feminine, and they can't wait to wear them to bed tonight.

I made them both a size bigger, and added ribbing so we can fold it back for this Winter and let it down for next. Really hoping I get 2 years out of these! I have more that are almost finished, so hopefully I can check back with photos soon.

Top pattern is a bit of a mix and match, but the bottoms are from Ottobre 1/2009.

two of a kind

Yep, I have totally overstepped my boundaries on this one, and given in to the real nerd inside. The girls have mama made matching outfits (oh, how painful!). The thing is, they like dressing the same, and to be honest it is so much more time efficient sewing two of the same outfit...I didn't have to change the thread on my machine once!
The pants are 'Kim' pants from Farbenmix, and the tops are from Ottobre 6/2008...slightly different designs. One has shirring on the sleeves, and the other across the chest. Maeve's top is actually the same pattern as the apple shirt in the post below.

the last of the apples...

This apple fabric would have to be some of my favorite, and can you believe it, I think I have finally reached the bottom of my supply. Such a shame indeed. I will treasure these few items of clothing!

A shirt for Maeve for the cooler Autumn days to come.
Yep, its another Ottobre. From issue 6/2008.
For some reason my shirring turned out really tight, can anyone give me any tips on this?

And 6 more pairs of undies to use up what would have been useless scraps.
I can't believe I have now made 18 pairs of knickers! I mean, who does that??
Seriously though, my kids look way too cute in these!